Yesterday morning I got out to Hartley Nature Center, and birded my way up to the big bluff along the Hartley Trail system. With it being my first day off of Hawk Ridge for the fall, I spent nearly two hours on top of the bluff. A very impressive number of finches and other songbirds were noted. I never mentioned this earlier, but all of this past spring & summer's birding posts to Hartley & Bagley Nature Areas have been part of my BIGBY (Big Green Big Year), where no fossil fuels are used for going birding.
At the bottom of this gallery, I have pictures of Pine Grosbeak, Snow Bunting, Red Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill (all in-flight from yesterday), as well as perched Common Redpoll from yesterday morning. http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/bagley_and_hartley The eBird list from yesterday morning http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11900327 There was an exciting push of raptors at Hawk Ridge today! I spent about 2 hours at the main overlook hanging out with the naturalists and visitors on the last day of the naturalists being up there. We were treated to great looks of dark morph Rough-legged Hawks, many light morph Rough-legged Hawks, Golden Eagles, many Bald Eagles, and a few Northern Goshawk too. Here is a juvenile Golden Eagle flying overhead, being mobbed by a Common Raven. The eagle's body and legs were facing the ground as it soared overhead, but its head was facing the sky in the photo. http://www.pbase.com/image/147090946 There sure are some fun sightings going on state-wide! I wonder what other unusual birds may show up with the recent east-coast hurricane taking place... Good birding, Erik Bruhnke Duluth, MN -- *NATURALLY AVIAN* - Birding Tours and Bird Photography [email protected] (e-mail) www.naturallyavian.com (birding tours) www.pbase.com/birdfedr (photos) www.facebook.com/NaturallyAvian (facebook) ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
